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GNSO Process Standing Committee

GNSO Process Standing Committee

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Last updated: Mar 02, 2025 by Aleksey KhapchenkoVersion comment

Description of GNSO Process Steering Committee

The GNSO Process Steering Committee will be responsible for recommending and reviewing any processes used within the GNSO and its council for developing policy recommendations. Recommendations are made in the BGC WG report as approved by the Board for substantial changes to the processes used by the GNSO council for developing policy. The immediate goal of this Steering Committee is to develop recommendations for all process changes needed to meet the requirements of the BGC WG report as approved by the Board. Once the first set of changes has been implemented, the charter of the GNSO Process Steering Committee could be expanded to include the responsibility for reviewing the functioning of the new processes and for recommending any further changes, should they be required. One example of such continuing work could involve the review of the post delivery reports of working groups that has been suggested in the BGC WG report.

The GNSO Process Steering committee could, if so tasked, also take on new tasks related to processes within the GNSO. Another set of tasks, for example, might involve setting up formal procedures, guidelines and mechanisms to be used within the GNSO for policy initiation and policy deliberation. Future work could also include establishing guidelines for the practice of drafting teams as used in the GNSO council and other ad-hoc mechanisms that are used by the council from time to time. Another area that may involve future work items for this committee includes establishing guidelines for the interactions between the ICANN volunteers of the GNSO and its council and the ICANN policy staff.

This steering committee will also be responsible for recommending any changes in the structure of standing committees to the full council.

Two initial work items are clearly delineated in the BGC WG Report:

  • Establishing new rules for the Policy Development Process (PDP) that are based on an open community Working Group model for the deliberative process
  • Establishing procedures and guidelines for the functioning of the policy Working Groups.

The steering committee will be responsible for identifying any other process work items that would be required to implement the BGC WG recommendations as approved by the Board and for coordinating work on those items.

Working Method for GNSO Process Steering Committee

One possible working method for the committee would be to initially create two separate teams, one tasked with developing a proposal for a new working group model (WG Team) and the other a new policy development process (PDP Team). Other work teams could be established as needed. In this case the Process Steering Committee would serve as the coordinating body for these separate teams.

This steering committee would be responsible for combining the results into a proposal. The proposal would need to include the guidelines for the working groups and the suggested bylaws changes for the PDP process.

One reason for exploring the establishment of two separate teams for the PDP revision and the working group model is that while the work needs to be coordinated, the detailed work of a PDP that is acceptable for the legal purposes of modifying the contractual conditions within the picket fence allowance of contracts is inherently different from the group dynamics oriented work required for establishing workable community based working groups.

Membership in the GNSO Steering Committee

  • GNSO council chair and/or vice chair
  • 1 representative from each constituency (need not be a Council member)
  • 1 NomCom appointee (see note on NomCom appointees)Note: This could be modified to fit the Stakeholder Group model in the future.
    Other participants in the GNSO Process Standing Committee
  • Liaison or an appointed representative from the designated group
  • GNSO Secretariat
  • 1 ICANN policy staff representative

Goals and Milestones for the GNSO Process Steering Committee

  • To be determined by the standing committee and approved by the Council

Process Steering Committee TeamsNote:The following is some initial work that has been done to flesh out some of the ideas. It will be the task of the committee once it is established to review these ideas for relevance and validity. These descriptions should be seen as placeholders that may be useful for starting conversations and suggestions for possible processes and a template that can be used for defining the SC Teams.* PDP TeamThis team would be responsible for reviewing the existing PDP in the bylaws and recommending changes to the bylaws to the community and council.* Working Group TeamThis team would be responsible for making recommendations concerning structure, processes and methods involved for the new GNSO Working Group (WG) model, including suggestions for transition to the new model.

Background on the GNSO Process Steering Committee

Reference from BGC WG Report on WG

Reference from BGC WG Report on PDP